Orienteering race 1:04:32 [4] 5.2 km (12:25 / km) +153m 10:49 / km
shoes: High top 2
US CHAMPIONSHIPS: "Cat's Meow" Greenbush Wisconsin
A great 'kettle and moraine' area which required full concentration from beginning to end to read the detailed contours and with few easy places to relocate.
Ran clean to control 5, though a little slow with some hesitation in places, but plan was better to be safe than sorry. 2-3 ran along the ridge top, but at mid point I should have taken the middle ridge, I opted for the right which was easier, but longer. 5-6: not sure what happened here!! 150m out I was having a problem matching the map to the features and bumped into Rob Wilkinson who was thrashing around. Decided to bail out back to control 5 as the closest known feature only to discover I had done a 180 deg error. 5 mins lost here!! Controls 6-10 were excellent legs and enjoyed them a lot. A liitle sloppy into 7 as went too far west.
Feeling a mixture of tired and adrenaline going 10-11, but hit the trail and clear attackpoint with 100m to go to control, then: helped competitor looking very lost and distressed and for my kindness paid a dear price - lost concentration and took off 45deg in wrong direction, eventually bailing out to original attackpoint and back up into control. a 61/2 minute error!! Compounded this 11-12 by instead of hugging the hill side ran down into the reentrant only to have to climb back out 1min error.
Frustrated with a couple of dumb errors. Today it was about having a clean run. The winner Carl Childs had a few minor errors. It was an excellent course in a great technical area.